By: Ray Ayers
(Ray is one of our drummers at invigorate and plays an active roll in the creative arts department. This devotion was shared during one of our creative team training sessions.)
I Thessolonians 5:11 says to comfort and edify, or encourage each other. Paul was an enormous encourager. If you look at all of his letters to the various church’s and people, he is always building them up and speaking encouragement into their lives. He might reprimand them in one verse, but in the next he is promoting confidence in them to do better.
Christians do not get encouragement for their lives from non-believers. In fact, most of the time, they want you to do things that might be detrimental to your walk with God. It’s like being around someone who is constantly negative or depressed. They end up bringing you down to their level and you find yourself with a negative attitude and taking anti-depressives and you don’t know why. This is why, as Christians, we have got to be there to lift each other up. If someone is having a rough day, don’t go talk to them about how your cat’s really sick and probably not going to make it. That is not going to help them out. Actually, don’t talk about yourself at all. Go to them and build them up. If they need you to listen, listen; if they need advice, let God use you to speak to their situation. This is what being an encourager is about.
We can also use encouragement as a form of spiritual warfare. You have to understand that Satan wants you completely discouraged and disheartened in you relationship with God. If he can do that, he doesn’t care if you continue to go to church or are even a Christian, because he knows you won’t be promoting Christ like you should. He might not get you, but he knows you aren’t living completely free and that affects the people around you. Once you become an encourager, you begin to fight against the spirits of apathy and dejection in others and in your life as well.
I know this is extremely simplistic and not anything new, but it is something that everybody can and should do. It’s not difficult to say, “Hey, I’m thankful that you are a part of this church.” or something, like that, and mean it. Plus, it is biblical. The Bible is full of examples of encouragement from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Just remember that we all could use a little pick-me-up once in a while. A good word from a friend can go a long way.
1 Comment
October 1, 2009 at 1:01 am
Good Word Ray! Thanks for keeping me “in-check” in this area. I’ve been applying this simple principle a lot lately and I have been able to bless many people & in return it has also been quite the blessing to me just by sowing life giving words into someone else’s life. (“It’s better to give than to receive”). Great job, Ray!